Jira on VM, Major performance issues.

[Nico Van fraeyenhove]

Hi,

I've recently installed JIRA 4.4.4 stand-alone version on a windows 2003 R2 SP2 (on a Virtual machine).

Testlink+ wamp server where pre-installed and did not take up much resources.(entire system was working on 512mb and 1cpu)We upgraded the machine to 2 cpu's and 2500MB ram specifically for JIRA.

I installed JDK 1.6 as recommended on the site. Set jira_home, java_home and cataline_home. Allocated more memory via the setenv.bat. (tried 1024 and 512)

Now the problem is that JIRA and tomcat seem to cripple my system. 100% cpu usage and both fighting for resources.

The actual setup of JIRA took almost an entire day. It needed an hour or so per page. (localhost:8080)

I hoped the system would recover after the setup but it it still on 100% cpu usage.

I've looked for solutions online, tried most of them but cannot fix the performance issue. I know that JIRA is pretty demanding and that it does not run efficiently on a VMware. But it should run better then this...

So does anyone know how i can fix this performance issue? Help is much appreciated.

additional info:

-I tried browsing to 127.0.0.1:8080 instead of localhost:8080 -> did nothing to fix the issue

-I tried changing the port to 8081 -> did nothing to fix the issue

-I tried changing browsers IE7 and Firefox8 -> did nothing to fix the issue.

-Database is on the same OS/VM (using MySQL on the wamp server)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I wouldn't try to run Jira on less than 1Gb RAM, and always try to allocate more too, but even with only 512 allocated, you should be seeing instant responses from the setup pages. An hour is telling me that there's something very wrong, and as you've increased the resources available, it's not just memory.

Off the top of my head, I would

1. Check your memory settings really are allocating what you think they are - I've stumbled into missing/misspelt Xmx1024 type parameters several times.
2. Check the server VM for anti-virus software - the way windows handles this can be utterly appalling, so if you have a virus scanner running on the VM, try disabling it and see if that makes it better.
3. Work through http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/Crashes+and+Performance+Issues+Troubleshooting

[Andris Grinbergs]

Ensure that vmware machine is not capping CPU MHz to some 500 or so.

Check if the disk IO speed is not the main cause for this issue. It usually is for virtualization.

Check that database is working optimally.

Investigate possibility to run Jira on linux - there will be much less overhead.

[NickW]

Hi Nico

Did you resolve this issue? If so how? This is a problem I have currently.

Nick

[Colin Goudie]

Performance can be tricky. You are always best to try log these straight to support.atlassian.com and they can help you direct.

But when you said you gave 2.5GB of RAM to JIRA, but then you mentioned only trying 512 and 1024m in setenv.sh? So just confused?

I wouldn't run JIRA on anything less than 2Gb of MAX_HEAP. (i.e. -Xmx setting).

Also, this is a VM on a 2003 install, what else is running on the host server and are there are VM's fighting for CPU etc..?

[Nico Van fraeyenhove]

The OS has 2.5gig memory jira has idd only 1024mb allocated to it.

It is a windows 2003 on a VMwave server. (the specification i gave above are specifically for the Windows 2003 not the entire VMware server)

thank you for the reply!

[Colin Goudie]

I doubt memory is the only issue here but no way would I run Windows server on only 2.5 Gb and JIRA on 1Gb.

My rule of thumb is min 4Gb and that's on Linux. Windows, I'd go min 6Gb. RAM is dirt dirt cheap

Having said that, it still shouldn't be taking as long as it is, so possible some CPU or IO issues here. You'll need to give us more info regarding the host machine and what else it is running or contact Atlassian support

[Nico Van fraeyenhove]

Just double checked the memory allocation and it was still set to 128min 512max so i changed it to 1gig for both.

Rebooting the server now.

I changed it via commandline this time (via jira service name) instead of the setenv.bat file.

edit: 1.5 was not possible, service could not start so i changed to to 1024mb.

Problem persists.

note: When jira service could not start the system was working fine.

Extra system info:

-system is using 2 cores from a quad E5430 @ 2.66GHz

-Vmware ESXi 4.0.0.

-No firewall atm

[Radu Dumitriu]

Maybe: Check this article: http://forums.manageengine.com/topic/java-exe-extremely-high-cpu-utilisation

Patch your ESXi, this usually solves such problems ...

[Nico Van fraeyenhove]

Thanks Radu, testing the fix now.